h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Colossus Rises Again. - A29623908
Author: Tamrhind - U956597

This is an entry on an early computer. I felt it was getting a bit long so I didn't go into how it worked but can do if you feel I should.

Verrrryy Interestink!

Nicely Done, too!

I noticed this:
[But, as it took in the order of a month to crack Tunnies, the results were more often than not of interest only to historians.]
You may have meant 'not of interest except to historians.' or 'often only of interest to historians.'

and this:
[In 1943, automation came to the party.A mathematician, Max Newman,]
Just a missing space after the '.'.

Good Luck!

"You may have meant 'not of interest except to historians.' or 'often only of interest to historians.'

I actually omitted a comma! Amazing what misusing those microbes can do, innit? Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't want to be unduly negative, but IMO this needs a lot of work before ordinary folk will enjoy reading it.

You obviously know the subject, but at the moment you're being self-indulgent and deliberately obscure.

I think you should re-write it for the mildly interested layman, because here in hootoo, that's who your reader is. I think you are trying to prove how clever you are, whereas if you write even half-well, that will look after itself. I suggest you should distil this down to the interesting tale it surely is, put sympathetic people in it, explain the essential technicalities and leave the rest of the tech-speak out.

I could be wrong, of course. Let's see what others think.

All I can say at the moment is, a devout non-mathematician, neither cryptography nor logic nor any other of the esoteric sub-topics covered by Computing send into giddy raptures.

I simply wrote it as I was a "mildly interested layman, myself, interested in the historical aspects (as a History major) of what was an important wartime breakthrough.

For this reason, I agree wholeheartedly and will wait upon the vox populi - as I have always done in PR.

I'm afraid Tamrhind that I have to agree with Pinniped. This entry reads as though it were a set of notes in preparation for writing an entry. The effect is magnified by the way that it starts a new paragraph so frequently.

It also contains unessential facts that put the reader off rather than inform. For example, your description of modulo-2 doesn't help the layman. Only if you already know what it means can you understand what you are trying to say. You could make it much more approachable with something like...

>>Lorenz based his encrption system on Gilbert Vernam's 1918 design, whereby the text was enciphered using a mathamatical method known as modulo-2 arithmatic. Basically this system modified each character of the text using another 'secret' letter. The receiver of the encoded message would turn the message back into plain text by repeating the arithmetic process using the same secret character.<<

>>But, on 30 August 1941, a Colossal cock-up.<<
Are you intending this to be a pun? The use of a capital letter for Collosal tends me to think so. If so, the pun fails because the mistake - note, please don't describe it as a cock-up - was made on the German side.

Rounded out and made to flow, this could be a good entry, not as it stands.

Bother! 'arithmatic' should have been 'arithmetic'

I was kinda worried about that modulo section myself; being utterly un-Ensteinian myself, it meant zilch to me (hence, "For the boffins..."). I'll probably take this offline ("Not For Review") shortly so I can tackle it again; in the meantime, further constructive criticisms gratefully accepted.

Punctuation, please? Divide it into sections rather than having one line per paragraph? The way it stands it's difficult to read even without taking into account any of the content

Author Tamrhind
Last posted: 9 Aug, 2008

Suggestions for this Entry?

Choices: Back to Entry / Flea Market

GB
Scout

I think Back to Entry here, as it does (as commented) appear to be more notes than substance

Yup, I agree. Back to Entry.

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